We Shred - Coming to a Town Near You

I met Janelle back in the winter of 2005. At my former place of employment, I had placed an ad for seasonal help and she was one of a long list of respondents. I called her in for an interview. After a few minutes of chatting with her, I knew immediately that we would become fast friends. She had a super cute hairstyle and perfectly applied lipstick. That is how you KNOW. You just do.

I was supposed to hire seasonal help. People that could perform or be trained to perform tasks that helped us through tax season. Copying, fiing, answering the phone, process tax returns..ect.

Little did I know, this new employee would become one of my best friends, we would go through H-E-double toothpicks in that office together and fly the coop. Thelma and Louise.

Don't get me wrong. The first year was awesome! We had so much fun in that office. Our boss was cool, although sometimes quirky, and we would take in yummy chicken bowls at KFC or the #8 "Swee & Sar Chick" at the local chinese place as we stayed into the late hour giggling and listening to K-Love really loud, all while doing the tax season routine.

One night, it was just her and I. We were probably slap happy tired. I think we were shredding some papers and somehow ended up talking about flying the coop and opening up our own shredding company. We would get a big truck, drive around to big offices and shred away. For some reason, this was HALARIOUS to us.



As I drove to the gas station yesterday morning, stopping to get a car wash before continuing on to work, I seen this big truck with the iShred logo on it. If Janelle wasn't on vacation on an African Safari, I would've called her. It made me think of her and I. The "team" we once were as fellow employees. Our pipe dream. The new "we shred" dream team. Super fun.

I miss those times. Only the good ones though, not the horrid ones.

Maybe someday Janelle, maybe someday.

For now, thanks for being a super-fun-friend.

John & Shari Plus 4

Pretty much everyone knows the show "Jon & Kate Plus 8". For those of you who are in the minority and do not know about it, its a show on TLC that shows a real life couple who had twin girls and then, wanting one more child and with the help of IVF, had SIX more! Not six single births -- SIX at the SAME time. Total amount of children = twin girls along with three boys/three girls/sextuplets.

John and I are pretty much addicted to watching it. It definitely makes our lives seem like a breeze.

This weekend, our family is watching our home videos, hence the title. John came up with the cleverness of it. Isn't he clever? Except it doesn't rhyme like the tv show's charming title.

The similarities with the TLC show and our family is pretty limited.


Both the husband's/dad's names are John/Jon.

Kate is older than Jon, by about two years I think. I'm only about 8 weeks older than my John.


They have three boys. We have three boys. But ours were obviously not born at the same time, like theirs.

Both their family and our family have more than the typical two/three children families in America. But again, our family does not have mulitiples.

It seems that they, like us, attend an Assembly of God based church.

That is where the similarities end.

Jon seems to be second in command most of the time. I like to act like I'm in command, but when it comes right down to it...okay, I am. Just kidding. I'm not. I don't want to be. Okay, maybe sometimes.

Anyhoo.

Kate is a perfectionist. I certainly am not.

John and I had single birth children, spaced apart by two to three years. A boy, then another boy, a girl and then another boy. Each. By. Themself. Easy.

Their family is on tv, for all the world to see. To enjoy. And pick apart. Ours is not.

What would make people want to watch my family? I'm not sure. Probably nothing. Only other family members and close friends would be possibly interested. Even then, their attention span would probably be limited. Pop in one of those "old" home videos and I am glued. Then I start shouting out to each child as they are displayed on the screen, "Oh look! You were so cute!" "I remember when you used to do that, do you remember?" "John, you remember that, huh?" "Ohhhhh!!!!" "Listen to your voices!" and on and on. For the most part, the kids enjoy watching themselves, but certainly don't relate to it like their mother does.

Time to break out the popcorn and somehow hook up the dust covered VCR.

...We really need to have them transferred to DVD.

Remembering Allison

Today I got up and thought about what I was going to do today.
It's my day off!
Did I want to squeeze a lot in one day, or just sit back and relax, maybe doing a few needed chores.

Today, Beth also got up.
It's a dreaded day for her.


Two years ago today, her beautiful daughter, Allison Paige, lost her fight in a battle against an autoimmune liver disease. She was thirteen years old.

A little older than Rachel is now.

Allison was an active young girl, involved in the JV pom-pon squad, played in the orchestra and was beginning marching band. She had her whole life ahead of her. She was so loved by her mom, dad, sister and brother.

They miss her terribly.

Please say a prayer for this family. Their hearts are broken.

Random Thoughts

I have a headache.
I'm tired.
I wish I could've lost twenty more pounds by now.
I'm glad tomorrow = day off.
I want Micah.
I have a love/hate relationship with white chocolate pretzels, since making them for Stephen's open house.
I am addicted to reading other people's blogs.
I wish my kids were little again (sorry, beating that old drum again).
I miss some of my old friends that I haven't spoken to...in a long time.
I am sick of doing laundry and cleaning my house.
Really sick of it.
I wish I had a maid.
And a cook.
I want to go on vacation again.
I want to always be on vacation.
I can't believe school is starting in three weeks.
I wish everyone I knew or came in contact with would understand and accept God's plan of salvation. Just everybody for that matter.
I love Jesus.
I love singing worship songs to Him.
I love hearing a new song that I immediately fall in love with, and how excited I get when its played on the radio.
I am grateful for everything that I have.
I love my kids so dang much!
My dogs are dirty, they need a bath.
I wish people on the road weren't so rude.
There is so much evil in this world.
But there is so much good too.
Good wins in the end by the way.
Time to go...

Summer 1996

John's mom gave me some pictures again. I briefly looked through some of them last night and couldn't resist sharing these from a camping trip.


Do you see Matthew in the background....it looks like he is gargling his squeeze-it juice! I am quite sure that is what he was doing. That was SO him.


A time when the boys looked and fussed over "sissy".


My little boy...


Once again, I gasp at the time that has gone by.

Goodbye Cletus

Dear Cletus,
I heard that you are going away.
Say it ain't so.
What are we going to do without you?
You are remarkably talented...in your own special, hillbilly-bathrobe-wearing way.
Who will carry the plunger (torch)?
Please come back to visit us soon.
We will miss you.
We will miss you.
We will miss you.
We will miss you terribly.

Aero-who?

John and I have found ourselves listening on occasion to a radio station that plays a variety of "old" music. We especially enjoy some tunes from the 80's. Takes us back. This also reminds me of my own parents' love for listening to their "old" music back when I was a teenager. I couldn't relate to their love of that old, dated stuff.

Fast forward to the other night, Rachel and I driving home together.

The song "Angel" by Aerosmith is playing. I'm singing the parts that I remember. Rachel can barely stand it and has her hand on the button, ready to change it at any moment. Except that she knows that I'll probably smack her hand and turn it back, so she doesn't. It's posed there as a clear reminder for me to turn it, NOW!

The station is one that shows the artist and title on your car stereo. Usually, either just the title or artist remains for a long time before the other shows up. So it said "Angel" for awhile.

I'm singing along and then the artist's name comes across, "Aerosmith".

Rachel goes, "WHO the heck is that?"

I am cracking up.